Megan's Big Adventure

Whew, what a day. it started early at 5:40 a.m. as I crawled out of bed to get an early start on our trail ride day. It was forecast to be very hot so we wanted to be done by mid-morning which meant Megan and I needed to be on the road by 7:00. It seems funny now with all that's passed in the last 24 hours but I was a nervous wreck. Running to the bathroom, tense as heck as I worried about how my girl would take to the trail. The bathroom trips delayed our departure by 10 minutes, but not too bad!

Our ride was a friend's place about 1.5 hours away. She has a 400 acre farm with lots of trails and no mountain bikers! I have no problem with mountain bikers but it wasn't something I wanted in the mix for the first time out on my 3 year old. We arrived in good fashion with me in nearly full on panic attack. Seriously, you would have to question why you do this if you were this tense all the time. My friend Debbie was talking my nerves down. The funny thing is I was riding with an ER doctor, an ER nurse and a lawyer. All the bases were covered!

I had given Megan a does of Quietex before we loaded up and she came off the trailer lookie but not wild. Very reasonable in fact, so I'm very impressed with the product, it worked exactly as advertised. It's an all natural paste with a calming -- not sedative -- effect. I lunged Megan out in the pasture and she was up and interested but listening to me. Deep breath, time to get on. I won't go through every detail of the ride -- suffice to say SHE WAS GREAT. It was very hilly terrain and she struggled to balance going down hill and drug herself up the hills, but she wasn't bothered by dogs running in and out of the brush and right by her feet. She wasn't bothered by swinging branches or stepping over and around rocks and down trees.

The most exciting/gratifying part was crossing the creek. It's a fairly deep cut down to the water and then a wide creek with a rocky bottom. A lot of young horses (and older ones, too) object to just the approach, but after a momentary hesitation Megan walked right down and to the water and then into the water. Very cool and the absolute best scenario for a future eventer. She walked right in on the second time and really wanted to hang out and paw, but since I didn't trust her not to just lay down and roll I kept her moving. We ended up riding for about an hour and she was one tired pony by the end. She really struggled up the last hill and then was pleased to see the barn and trailer at the top. We walked back down the drive to let her see a large metal sculpture of a dog up on its hind legs. It probably stands about seven feet tall and is an unusual sight. She huffed and puffed a little bit and then decided that the grass at its feet was more interesting. What a good girl!!

About 20 minutes in to the ride I finally started to breathe and relax but I was still worn out from all the tension and little did I know that the excitement had just begun. We loaded up and headed home after a half hour of secondary roads we hopped on the interstate for home. Unfortunately we came to a dead stop in the first 1/2 mile. I called home to my husband, aka GPS Boy - Master of all things navigational -- the news was not good. The GA DOT website noted a serious accident that wouldn't be cleared for another 1.5 hours. Fortunately I was able to turn the trailer around in the median and head back to the exit where Steve plotted a new route home. Unfortunately the new route was long, winding and with lots of stops.

Poor Megan. That kind of travel is very tiring for the horse. It takes lots of balancing in the trailer with so many turns and stops. I think I ground all the enamel off my teeth with the frustration of what I was putting my already tired pony through. Each stop and turn and abrupt deccelaration when inconsiderate drivers rushed to get in front of the trailer made me feel horrible. After 3 long hours we were home. Megan was more than ready to get off that trailer. You could see a quiver in her muscles and she was tucked up from the effort, but happy to be home. A quick bath and out in a paddock for an hour to get her land legs back. Lots of cookies and pats and apologies from Mom.

The excitement wasn't over for me yet. Steve had met me at the barn to help unload and unhook. We decided to head to lunch -- me in the truck and he on his motorcycle. I passed an intersection with a car waiting and worried that he might not see the bike, but thought he did and continued on. The next time I checked my rearview -- about 20 seconds later -- no Steve. I thought he may have taken an alternative route and quickly dialed his cell phone. It was a horrible moment when a woman answered with "There's been an accident." I could hear him in the background saying he was all right, which was good. The woman said he was up and moving around which I'm glad I heard BEFORE seeing the accident scene. The car had pulled out in front of him and he t-boned it and flew over the hood and onto the pavement. The bike was destroyed -- pieces all over the road. Amazingly, Steve was up and walking with just some gashes on his ankles. And there I was with no Desitin. Off to the ER for a spinal check and xrays of a very painful ankle. Thankfully no broken bones and three stitches and a tetnus shot later he was sprung -- sore but extremely lucky and thankful.

Of all the things I was worried about in the morning, none of them came to pass and what did was totally from left field. Certainly puts things in perspective.